Meet our team: Steve Richens

Published 26 October 2022

Steve Richens is a national learning advisor at Te Mahi Ako. Hailing from the UK, Steve has loved all forms of sport and coaching throughout his life.

Having run ski industry teams in Europe after he finished university, Steve eventually found his way down to the ski resorts in New Zealand. 

Steve doesn’t like to sit around and when he’s not working or playing sport himself, he’s coaching rugby, football and swimming, or volunteering in his local fire brigade in Arrowtown. 

As a manager Steve always enjoyed the staff development side of his role, and being able to help people map out a career pathway for themselves that could take them up through the levels of their vocation. 

With the establishment of Te Mahi Ako as an independent work-based learning provider, Steve is looking forward to having more freedom to collaborate with other providers to support end-to-end career progression. 

“For these people who want a career in our industries, we will be able to offer them more flexibility in what they can learn and what they can do with us. From school leavers through to degree-level study, we won’t have the constraints that we had before as an industry training organisation.” 